On its self-titled debut, Silk Flowers plays rough-textured, electronic pop that sounds as though it has been pressed from a worn-out cassette tape. The lo-fi quality of the LP (recorded with Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good to Me and City Center) reinforces the bittersweet, emotional shadings of singer/multi-instrumentalist Aviram Cohen’s baritone voice—suggesting Scott Walker fronting an early Mute Records group. Songs lead by vocalist/electronics player Ethan Swan recall the adenoidal Fury-era Chris Thompson backed by a mechanized version of Crass. And the music throughout, anchored by keyboardist Peter Schuette, fits beguiling melodies sometimes reminiscent of utopian krautrockers Harmonia and Tangerine Dream into condensed pop structures.
The group, encompassing one half of Car Clutch (Swan) and former members of Soiled Mattress and the Springs (Cohen, Schuette), creates a sound that bears little resemblance to the musicians’ past efforts. But Silk Flowers has a clearly traceable lineage in the softly spoken history of electronic music and the darker recesses of pop past. The result? A percolating grid of swelling, anthemic keyboards; analog-heaven tape echo; crackling, sometimes-dub-like rhythms; and carefully counterbalanced vocals.
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